As public dissent builds against President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policies in South Florida and beyond, well-known and influential media and higher education voices have joined an effort to push Congress to take action.
The "Keep Them Honest" public awareness campaign has recruited the likes of Miami Dade College President Emeritus Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, former television news anchors Leticia Callava and Michael Putney, and former Miami Herald publisher David Lawrence Jr. to star in a series of advertisements speaking out against immigration enforcement policies under the Trump administration.
"When our government treats our immigrants like this, that is the sign of an authoritarian government and I simply cannot accept it," Putney, formerly of WPLG's This Week in South Florida news show, said during a Tuesday press conference.
READ MORE: Former Miami Dade College president calls Trump library land giveaway ‘unimaginable
"Keep Them Honest" is a Miami-based political messaging group that has paid for billboards and online advertisements targeting South Florida's Republican Hispanic Representatives in Congress, including Carlos Giménez, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Maria Elvira Salazar. Some ads included messages like: "Deporting immigrants is cruel" while featuring the faces of these Cuban American Republicans in Congress.
It is funded by billionaire philanthropist Michael B. Fernández, a one-time major Republican donor who left the party about a decade ago.
The lawmakers featured in the attack ads have dismissed them as criticism from the "far left," a characterization Fernández denies.
The latest set of ads will feature the voices of former journalists and educators, and will run on social media and local television in South Florida. This round of the awareness campaign constitutes a "six-figure ad buy," according to campaign spokesperson Chris Willis.
In one video spot, former Univision anchor Callava speaks of her own immigrant experience, and the stark contrast with the environment for migrants today.
"I came to this country as a teen with my mother and sister, three Cuban women searching for freedom," Callava says in Spanish. "But today, decent and hardworking people are facing inhumane deportations. And while they live in fear, our Congress members remain silent."
In another, Padrón, the former Miami Dade College president, points out that even law-abiding migrants are being treated unfairly.
"Immigrant families that follow the law and contribute to our communities live in fear because of the politics of immigration that dehumanizes them," Padrón says in Spanish.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have conducted violent raids and deportation arrests throughout the U.S., in some cases detaining pregnant women, young children separated from their families as well as legal U.S. citizens, in contravention of federal law.
Outcry against immigration enforcement has led to nationwide protests under the name "No Kings," which have seen thousands of attendees across major cities in South Florida, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Padrón has spoken out against numerous actions by Republican officials in Florida as of late, most recently decrying the giveaway of prime downtown Miami real estate owned by Miami Dade College to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation at the behest of Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration.
